Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Requiem for a Russ

And so it comes to pass.

It's probably been three or four years coming, but Russ Adams and the Blue Jays finally parted ways yesterday to make way for marginal bullpen arm T.J. Beam.

(With the departure of A.J., and J.P. Arencibia still a year away, the Jays needed to shore up their strategic supply of initials.)

Adams was J.P. Ricciardi's first pick as Jays GM, and their fates seem destined to be forever intertwined. The selection is still held up as emblematic of all that is wrong with the embattled GM's tenure with the team, and we're reasonably sure that Adams' name will continue to be dropped into to post game JaysTalk rants up to and immediately following J.P.'s almost inevitable dismissal.

We've heard for years about how the Jays passed on Scott Kazmir and Matt Cain and Cole Hammels in order to pick Adams. Realistically, none of those players (all high school pitchers) were going to sign with the Jays, especially if the team adhered to the recommended slot bonusses.

(We're assuming that there were slot recommendations in 2002, but someone feel free to call BS on us if we're wrong on that.)

In his only full season with the Jays, Adams played a somewhat underwhelming 139 games in 2005, posting eight homers, 63 RsBI, 11 steals and a .707 OPS. In retrospect, it's funny to look at those numbers and comapre them to Marco Scutaro's 2008 (7 HRs, 60 RsBI, 8 SBs and a .697 OPS). Isn't it funny how some of the same pundits in the Toronto sports media who hold up Adams as a sign that everything is amiss in Blue Jayland were hailing Scutaro as the team's MVP last season?

A quick glance at the position players picked behind Adams in that draft shows that there weren't a ton of great bats to be had. Nick Swisher, James Loney, Jeff Francoeur came later in the first round, Joey Votto came a the start of the second, and Brian McCann went deep in the third, but most of those players would have had (say it with us) signability issues.

We'll confess to being a bit sad to hear of Adams' departure. It kinda makes us feel as though time's slipped away on us.

Roto-Hoedown UpdateThanks to everyone who wrote in to beg, plead and grovel their way into the 2009 Roto-Hoedown. We're down to a single spot left, and we unfortunately can't expand on the 15-team format.

If you are still interested in playing in the big boys' roto league, then it's not too late to email us (taoofstieb at gmail dot com) and knock our stirrups off. We're going to hold off on filling that last spot until later in the weekend, when someone who really deserves the spot steps up and claims it.

(We probably have enough people to set up a second league as well, so there's always that.)

For those of you who emailed yesterday and haven't heard back from us, we'd recommend writing back and laying it on a little thicker with the grovelling. A hint: we like when people use full sentences with correct spelling. It appeals to our sensibilities. As do pictures of your sisters or signifcant others in bikinis.

When your utility-infielder-turned-starter-because-Eckstein-sucks hits like that then it's a nice bonus. But when your 1st-round pick-shortstop-of-the-future puts up those numbers, it's a little different.

And let's not forget Adams' defense. Actually, strike that. Do everything you can to forget his defense.

/does a tequila shot//smokes a bowl///shoots heroin////Still remembers all those missed throws. Crap!

I would of applied, but I am in 2 and possibly 3 leagues already that are quite in depth with minor leaguers, contracts and cap issues.

However, That being said I am now officially offering up my services as a cheerleader to someone in the league. Highest bidder gets it. Bids can be made in Jays Tickets, Jays Bobbleheads and Rogers Cable Credit.

If you choose to believe Moneyball, Russ was a consensus top pick. The Mets only took Kaz because Russ was off the board, and the A's had him pegged as the second they would take after Swisher. JP would have been better served grabbing Swisher instead but Adams would only have dropped a couple slots if that was the case.

I wish I could find that article that listed the Jays position players in 5 years and how it was going to be amazing. Russ Adams was definitely at short. The rest are pretty much intact (Hill, Lind, Snider, Rios -- I forget the rest.)

Thanks for letting me into your pool, Tao. You either like me more than I thought (probably not) or you are overstating the demand -- which I applaud!

The difference between Russ and Marco lies in their fielding. Russ was well below league average in 2005 while Scutaro was above or well above average in 2008. Add in the fact that Scoots played 6 positions last season and you can see his added ~value~ and how they are not close to being the same player.

1) The Jays made a decision three years ago that Adams' bat was good enough that they should give up on his SS defence and convert him to 2B. In hindsight, the truth is his bat is only good enough at SS and they should have left him in AAA for the past three years working on his arm. His SS defence, from my recollection, was only horrible due to his throwing accuracy, the rest of the package was average-ish. And it seemed to be a head (confidence) issue too. Leaving him at SS in the minors, may have helped the situation considerably. Again - in hindsight.